Inside Apple's shareholders meeting — The press, as usual, was barred from bringing communication devices into the Apple (AAPL) shareholders meeting that began at 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST) Thursday. — But, as often happens, word is leaking out despite the blackout thanks to iPhones in the hands of shareholders who shall go unnamed.

January 2010 Mobile Metrics Report — For this month's feature section, we ran an opt-in survey of consumers on iPhone, iPod touch, Android and webOS devices to learn more about how they are engaging and interacting with applications. The behavioral and demographic insights taken …

Gmail Labs graduation and retirement — We launched Gmail Labs over a year and a half ago as a playground where engineers can come up with new features and let your input help decide which are good ideas and which don't quite work out. Any engineer at Google can come up with a feature …

This stuff is tough — Yesterday's news that the European Commission has opened a preliminary inquiry into competition complaints from three companies has generated a lot of questions about how Google's ranking works. Here, Amit Singhal, a Google Fellow responsible for ranking …

Chatroulette: 71% Boys, 15% Girls, 14% Perverts — Chatroulette has become all the rage among folks in the online video and social media scene, prompting coverage in the NY Times, CNN and other major national news outlets. Well if you've ever wanted to learn more about Chatroulette …

Pandora spurs music sales; Spotify not so much — NEW YORK—Free on-demand music sites haven't fared very well when it comes to driving song sales. — Russ Crupnick, an analyst with market researcher NPD Group, told a crowd of music and tech executives here Wednesday that free streaming-music sites …

Larger Threat Is Seen in Google Case — ROME — Three Google executives were convicted of violating Italian privacy laws on Wednesday, the first case to hold the company's executives criminally responsible for the content posted on its system. — The verdict, though subject to appeal …

Report: Teen gets 15 years for Facebook blackmail — A Wisconsin teenager convicted of using Facebook to blackmail classmates into sex was sentenced to 15 years in prison, according to an Associated Press report. — Anthony Stancl, 19, plead no contest in December to two felonies …

Apple Removes Explicit Option From iTunes — The joy didn't last long. According to an iPhone developer, the new “Explicit” option available this morning on the App Store submission software is now gone. He just got off the telephone with Apple, who confirmed the removal.

Facebook Glitch Sends Messages to Wrong People — Last night, in an embarrassing glitch for Facebook that raises questions about privacy on the site, some users of the social-networking service began getting hundreds of personal messages that weren't intended for them.

Time for Apple to get serious about video — Netflix is cruising. The cable guys are catching on. Wal-Mart just rumbled in. — The Web's video-on-demand sector is filling up fast with some serious heavyweights. If Apple wants to make a mark in digital video that even vaguely resembles …

Silicon Valley Is Not Wall Street — Too often, there is confusion between investment banking and venture capital. This isn't helped by investment bankers' occasional assertions that they too do venture capital. They don't. In light of the attention both of these activities …

Virgin to roll out 100mbps broadband service — Next-generation web connection will provide internet access at more than 24 times the current average speed — Virgin Media said it would start rolling out the 100 megabits per second broadband service to its 3.8 million cable broadband customers by the end of the year.

Facebook opening 200-person Austin office — Facebook Inc. is creating 200 jobs in Austin, thanks to a $1.4 million incentive from the state of Texas. — The move will be the first major U.S. expansion outside of Palo Alto, where the company is headquartered, according to officials.

Time to Start Looking for a Buyer, Palm? — So much for Palm's big recovery. This morning, the company lowered its fiscal-year revenue forecast and warned of a grotesque 30 percent shortfall in its current quarter. — Palm (PALM) expects third-quarter revenue to be between $285 million …

The titanium iPhone is real, really real (video) — You came, you saw, some of you were not convinced. So what's a gadget blog to do when picture evidence isn't enough? Why get those pictures moving, of course, right up to 30 frames a second. The stunning titanium iPhone 3GS from this morning is back …